Our Top Tips for Decorating a Blank Space

Many party hosts can’t imagine a more thrilling artistic opportunity than starting from scratch with a clean canvas, a landscape that aches to come alive with their individuality and passion. These lucky people are visionaries who can take one look at a room and imagine how to fill every inch of it with color and texture, celebration and laughter. Others might tackle an event with a more conceptual approach, knowing that they’d like to set the tone with a specialized theme, such as the romance of travel or the mysteriousness of masquerading…and yet, needing help to execute the details. And still, some may find themselves overwhelmed by the possibilities: “How will I ever be able to plan a party in this space, from start to finish?” The choices are endless—it’s true! We’d like to offer you suggestions for how to take on the creative challenge of decorating a blank space, to ensure that you are drawing from your deepest inspirations, setting realistic goals, and having a blast along the way.

Top Tip #1: Do Your Research

Check out our gallery and our Instagram feed for events and photo shoots that we have hosted in the past to discover whether any of these previous styles or themes speak to you!

Make a Pinterest board of your favorite party trends, themes, activities, decor accessories, table-and-chair layouts, food displays, and so on. Perform online searches for “warehouse wedding” or “industrial party” to find images that replicate the look of Warehouse XI, or photos of events that actually took place in our space. Once you have gathered images, you’ll most likely realize that a pattern has emerged in your preferences. You will more clearly see what styles you find appealing, what colors and accents you gravitate towards, and what aesthetics you don’t like at all.

Request quotes from multiple equipment, food, entertainment, and event planning vendors. Maybe one vendor has more appetizer variety than another, or maybe the vendor with the kind of farm tables that you love has already booked all of those tables for another event. Give yourself plenty of options.

Top Tip #2: Hire An Event Planner

Seriously consider hiring an event planner. We can’t stress enough how an event planner’s expertise can improve the caliber of a party! Handing over your responsibilities to a master of the craft takes an enormous weight off of your shoulders. In addition, you will benefit from an event planner’s connections to vendors. A planner will often know, without soliciting official quotes, whether everything you want for your party fits within your budget.

If you don’t hire a planner, select someone on your guest list to step in as the coordinator for you. Having another person on board who can organize, delegate, make phone calls, run errands, and facilitate setup of the space makes a huge difference!

Top Tip #3: Get Creative!

Just because a particular theme or style hasn’t been done before doesn’t mean it can’t be done, or that it won’t materialize successfully. And even if your ideas don’t evolve into the outcome you expected, so what? Your party will be that much more personalized and memorable!

Don’t forget that you have your own unique talents and hobbies that no one else at your party does. Are you a meticulous calligrapher? Hand-letter your own place cards and signs. Can you make an entire zoo of balloon animals? Give them away as favors. Do you love arranging silk flowers? You’ve just supplied yourself with centerpieces! Also, call on friends blessed with talents that you don’t have. Undoubtedly, your closest acquaintances will be eager to add their services to your party planning.

Set up vignettes, or groupings of objects that establish a landmark and tell a certain “story,” throughout the room to provide focal points and conversation starters (e.g., a “beach” vignette, with a lighthouse, a sandbox, pails, and flip-flops; a “library” vignette, with a bookshelf stocked with classic literature, bifocals, and tea cups; a “DIY photo booth” vignette, with backdrops, costume glasses and jewelry, hats, and other props).

You can also use lighting, plants and small trees, and rugs to delineate smaller spaces. Remember to leave pathways for your guests so that they can smoothly navigate the room!

Top Tip #5: Manage Your Time

People always underestimate how much time they need to decorate a whole space — because they’ve never done it before! Being able to predict how much time you will need to string lights, adjust flowers, hang photos or paintings, position place settings, and so on is difficult to do. This unpredictable element of the process is why we always suggest event planners and why we do not allow hourly rentals for big parties. Give yourself enough time that you can decorate the space fully!